With just a month to go before the opening of the Lima 2019 XVIII Pan American Games, I would like to revisit, and invite readers to revisit a concept, as a tribute to the person who expressed it eight years ago, as the Cuban delegation was preparing to depart for the event in Guadalajara. Given competition from Brazil, Canada, and the home team, Mexico, José Ramón Fernández said, “We don’t have a forecast, we have purpose.”
A prediction at that time would not have included the second place spot ultimately won by Cuba’s athletes. Purposes and forecasts are not the same or similar. The first, unlike the second, has little to do with previous indications, conditions, technical or tactical characteristics of competitors - supports, logistical circumstances, or economic advantages that may impact the outcome; A purpose is based on the will to achieve a goal no matter how difficult it may be. The Cuban Revolution, which created and gave the world the powerful sports movement for which this island is known, is the most reliable proof of this.
Cuba was left without doctors and went on to become a reference in health care, provided to our citizens and shared around the world. The proposal was made to become a country of scientists and today we are recognized as such. Illiteracy, that denies so much to peoples, was bequeathed to us by colonialism, but Cuba is now well known among nations for our world class educational system, disproving all the forecasts made by politicians and prophets of doom that the genocidal blockade imposed by the world’s greatest imperial power in history, with its extraterritorial laws, lies, aggression of all kinds would be too much for the Revolution. History has shown how much purpose is worth, when a people is determined to triumph and develop.
When Cuban athletes say that in Lima they will go for more, they are not expressing a pretension in terms of results, but rather a commitment to fight in this pacific emulation that is athletic competition with all they have and more. It's about going out, as Yipsi Moreno did, to the hammer throw cage like a lion. It didn’t matter what the result might be, only that the hammer soared further. Anier García, in the 110 meter hurdles in Sydney 2000; judoka Driulis González in the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, with a serious cervical injury; Ana Fidelia Quirot in the World Cups of 1995 and 1997, with her two gold medals despite the burn scars on her body, or like the Cuban women’s volleyball team who defeated a strong Russian rival in 2000 to take their third consecutive Olympic title.
These feats do not reflect a prediction, they were the result of the purpose of heroes and heroines, and their trainers, for whom Fidel came up with his unforgettable text ‘For the honor of a gold medal,’ on August 28, 2008. This is the honor we speak of when we ‘Go for more.’
The challenge is to surpass 36 gold medals or place higher than fourth in the medal count – or both – to improve on our Toronto 2015 performance, although this will be pretty difficult to achieve. Analysts at the Institute for Sports, Recreation, and Physical Education (Inder) have already pointed out that Brazil has a good chance to take the titles in 20 events, while Canada is looking strong in 14; Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba, 13. Cuba is not competing in 149 of the 419 medal events, and those identified as offering the best chances for a title number 44, obliging 80% of our athletes to win their finals.
This is another challenge that will be met with athletes’ commitment to their people, and which, in my opinion, will produce 39 gold metals. According to Inder’s director of High Performance Sports, Jose A. Miranda, on the Mesa Redonda program, June 11, estimates from the well-informed are close to that number.Andre Kolechkine, the Belgian with a Cuban heart who introduced judo in our country, told his students: "To see beautiful landscapes you must climb high mountains." Those of Lima are as steep as those of Machu Picchu, so they must be climbed with the best weapons in hand: purpose and the will to see the valley.
